


Landscape

by voidfoxstarlight



Series: Aconite [3]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Statement Fic, The Lonely - Freeform, Transcript Format, the vast
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:54:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22839619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voidfoxstarlight/pseuds/voidfoxstarlight
Summary: Case #0140207. Statement of Sydney Jewett, regarding a painting in the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Original statement given 2nd July, 2014. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute. Statement begins.
Series: Aconite [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1642021
Kudos: 20





	Landscape

**ARCHIVIST**

Statement of Sydney Jewett, regarding a painting in the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Original statement given 2nd July, 2014. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute. Statement begins.

**ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT)**

I didn’t plan to tell anyone about this, at first. But my friends thought I should. I think they meant a counselor, or a therapist or something, but… I don’t feel like I need to. I don’t _feel_ traumatized. But I figured I might as well, if only to get them to stop bothering me about it.

It happened in a museum. I’ve always liked museums—the big ones especially. There are always more people at big museums, but I don’t mind it. It just makes it even better when you manage to wander so far away that you can’t see or hear anyone any more. It’s like being in a whole other universe, you know?

I was in Germany for a study-abroad thing. Me and a couple other students I know went. They’re the ones who wanted me to talk about this with someone. One of them, Monica, likes going to museums too, although her interest began and ended with art museums. It was her idea to go to the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Her major’s art history, so she wanted to go look at some painting or other she’d written about in an essay. She invited me along, and I said sure.

It was—well, it was alright. I usually go to museums alone, and it was a bit irritating having to wait around for another person. When Monica realized I was getting bored, we agreed to separate and meet back up sometime around noon.

It didn’t take long before a painting properly caught my attention. It was _Wanderer above the Sea of Fog_ , by Caspar David Friedrich. I… I’m not sure what drew me to it. Maybe it was the colours? No. No, that’s not it. It was the _sky_. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, but you should look it up if you haven’t. The way the fog makes the sky and land blur together, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. The horizon is broken up by mountains, but they’re faint enough that you don’t have to see them if you don’t want to.

I stared at it for—well, I don’t know how long, but I had this vague feeling of irritation while I did so. I realized I was annoyed at the person in the painting. It was like—I hated that he was in the way of the emptiness. Him and the rock he was standing on. Like I wished he would just disappear so the painting would be nothing but the sky and the sea, as it was supposed to be. I wanted him _gone_.

But then, the longer I looked, the more I wished I could take his place. It was like I could hear the roar of the waves and the wind, feel the cool salt spray on my skin. Somehow I got the idea in my mind that if I could just touch it, I could be there. I wanted to touch it _so bad_. So… I did.

And I was right. It took me there.

It was just exactly as I imagined it. It was beautiful and cold and the expanse of sea and sky stretched out around me farther than I could see. But I wanted to see _all_ of it. I wanted to relish with every fibre of my being the gift I’d been granted. I had no doubt it was a gift. Something wanted me to be in this place.

I didn’t notice at first, but I no longer had to pretend I did not see the distant mountains. They were gone. The rock beneath my feet was fading away, too, and I began to fall. I was not afraid. I felt like I’d been waiting to fall for my entire life.

Just as the last of the precipice disappeared, I was suddenly back in the museum. Monica had apparently yanked my hand away from the painting. ‘What are you _doing_? You’re going to get us thrown out!’ she’d hissed at me, and I remember not caring in the slightest. Monica did care, obviously, and she dragged me out of the museum and back to campus.

I did not get another chance to return to the Hamburger Kunsthalle before the semester ended, although I so desperately wished to. My friends told me I was… strange, after I saw the painting. I don’t know if they were right. I don’t particularly think I care. I keep thinking about that place where no mountains or rocks blocked the view of the sky fading into the fog fading into the ocean. I would like to go back to that place. Yes. I think that sounds very nice indeed.

**ARCHIVIST**

Statement ends. It appears that Ms. Jewett did participate in a study-abroad program in Germany in 2014, although there is no record of her attending any university after the spring semester of 2015—or, in fact, any record of her existing at all after that point. Michael was able to contact her mother, but at the mention of Sydney’s name, she became enraged and refused to speak with him further.

The Kunsthalle Hamburg is currently in possession _Wanderer above the Sea of Fog_ , and appears to have been so for quite some time. 

Judging from the beginning of the statement, I would have assumed Ms. Jewett to be marked as a follower of the Lonely, but the endless sky and ocean she described puts me in mind of the Vast. They are allies, I suppose. The Lukases and the Fairchilds have definitely been known to help each other out over the years. If Ms. Jewett is still alive—although it seems very unlikely—I hope that she never comes into contact with either of those families. Lord knows we don’t need any more of them.

**Author's Note:**

> The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is a BEAUTIFUL painting and i love it so much  
> also this is an au where michael went back to being human after helen became the distortion


End file.
